Thank you, God, for joy, joy, joy!

The picture on the blog tonight was taken yesterday. The girls went somewhere with the big kids and left us with the babies. The babies took really good care of us, but they won: THEY got the nap! Seriously, they were perfect and they fell asleep at the same time. They are just such dollies. Pop and I decided all we’ve ever spent on timeshares are worth it for moments like these. Don is holding Raynie and I’m holding Elena.

We got up and walked early today. Tomorrow we’re going up to Gatlinburg and the Great Smokey Mountain State Park, so we figure we’ll get in plenty of walking. We are really having the time of our lives. Surely we’re getting enough exercise, chasing babies and bending over a million times to pick them up or hold their hands to walk. They are so cute toddling around on their own. They crawl some, but they are walking more than crawling, now. It’s wild how they can both crawl out to the middle of the floor and then just pop up and take off walking without even pulling up on anything. What a joy! Thank you, God!

I should report that we got to stop and see Dorothy and David on Friday before we picked up the kids in OKC to leave for Tennessee. Dorothy was looking great to us! They got to go home on Saturday! I talked to David today and he said she was in the Hobart hospital getting some IV vitamins and fluids, hoping to build her strength. David says she’s very weak and not able to eat much to help her build back her strength. She’s taking Lortab for pain from the surgery, so I imagine it is making her stomach sensitive. When I took it after my surgery, they insisted that I eat crackers before taking a Lortab or it might make me sick. I imagine Dorothy just isn’t eating enough with her pill. It’s hard when you don’t feel good to eat. She’ll get past this. Thank you, God, for her successful surgery and please help her to continue to gain strength.

Bill (our next door neighbor and our preacher) called last night to tell us that he and his family and Dorothy and David and Hazel (across the street neighbor) were in our basement with Daniel due to storms. I thought it was pretty good that Dorothy made it down to our basement and back out! Thank you, God, for a place to be safe in storms and for mild storms! David said there was some wind damage around town, but they were just straight winds, no spinning winds and not tornado touchdowns. You never know at this time of year and in our area, so we love the basement! We dearly love our neighbors and friends! Thank you, God, for them.